If you’ve been finding more spiders on your patio, in your garage or dangling in a doorway lately, you’re not alone. And there’s a good chance they’ll stick around for a while longer. 

It’s officially spider season 

Late summer/early fall marks the start of spider season, and it has to do with a spider's life cycle following the seasons. 

Spiders' life cycles are roughly a year long. In the spring, the spiderlings begin emerging from their egg sac as it begins to rain more and the weather gets warmer. By the summer, they begin growing, getting bigger and bigger and more noticable. 

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And by late summer and early fall, the spiders reach their mature size and it becomes mating season. During mating season, the male spiders begin venturing out and about looking for their new mate.

That’s why it’s during this time that we begin to see so many spiders outside.

Are you seeing a massive web that's often strung across porches and gardens? It's probably an orb weaver. By the time orb weavers have reached their full size, their webs are enormous. During mating season, male orb weavers will court by plucking the threads of a female’s web. 

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But warmer weather will keep them around longer

Spider season typically is over by the first real freeze of the season, where the cold makes them go dormant. But with warmer falls and later first freezes, spider season gets extended. 

According to Climate Central, the average first freeze is arriving 12 days later than it used to in the early 1970s. And across many cities in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, the first freeze is arriving at least two weeks later. A later first freeze means a longer spider season. 

Warmer autumns and fewer hard freezes also affect spiders’ food supply. They give them a longer runway too, letting their populations rebound faster year after year. 

Rising fall temperatures delay the seasonal cue that tells spiders that it's time to go dormant, effectively extending their breeding and feeding window. More prey staying active later means more reason for spiders to stay active later, too.

So if the creepy-crawlies give you the heebie-jeebies, you might want to start getting used to them, they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.